Websites Offering Free Digital Marketing Training and Certifications

What skills could I develop in order to make myself more employable in the field of marketing, despite a lack of in-house or agency experience?

One way is by having a lot of certifications that employees expect to find in a marketing professional. For digital marketing one certification would be hubspot, Google’s analytics and Google Adwords. But before you embark in getting certified, make sure you have tested it all of the areas of Digital Marketing, and you are at a point where you can define in what you want to specialize in. Ex. Social Media, Branding, Technical SEO, SEM, Affiliate, Video Marketing, Content Marketing, Inbound Marketing, Mobile Marketing which is part of technical SEO, etc.

Last year I had a workshop about this exact topic. Careers in Digital and Social Media Marketing

Before getting into a traning and becoming certified Ask yourself:

Do you want to be part of the team or do you want to be the manager?- ex. Digital Marketing Manager or Marketing Director. Each of these fields have different levels of difficulty and also different salaries. For instance, specialties within the field of marketing like social media are way easier than Technical SEO. If you want to work as a digital manager, which pays from 80k to 110k, you might require to have a marketing or business degree, whereas a social media specialist doesn’t require a bachelor’s degree and pays about between $30K to $45K annual salary.

Warning, a digital marketing can have career has its ups and downs if you dont stay focus and clear of your career goals. Plus, the competition is fierce (many say to know Digital Marketing, but have no clue, regardless ). If they can talk a good game, employees hire them because some employers dont know better. So in order for a marketing professional to stand out, you need that extra topping to your resume in order to increase your talent stack

Lastly, if you really want to have an steady and exiting job in the field of marketing, make sure you shoot high. The higher you shoot Ex. you want to work for google or Hubspot, Amazon or the American Marketing Association digital division, the better in that the employer will hire you based of your skills and not so much of how much of a good game you talk. In other words, you won’t be wasting your time having interviews with employees who doesn’t understand digital marketing too well, and will hired the person who is good talker sales-like type of person instead of you who’s skills can be a great asset to an organization.

8. WordStream’s PPC University PPC University is a totally free online learning resource

9. Social Media Quickstarter Digital Marketing CourseConstant Contact’s Social Media Quickstarter emphasizes opportunities to integrate email with social media marketing, to maximize the impact of both channels. In a series of step-by-step lessons, learners can study digital marketing tactics for Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, YouTube, blogging, and online listings and reviews sites.

10 Alison Free Diploma in E-Business Alison is a massive online learning community of more than six million registered users, with standards-based and certified courses offered absolutely free of charge.

Students that plan to undertake the Google Online Marketing Challenge are encouraged to complete the Digital Marketing Course, as the skills learned in this course will help them shape their strategy for the competition, get the most out of AdWords for their business partner and help prepare them for the Google Partners AdWords Certification exams.

AdWords Certification

The Google AdWords Certification is a globally recognized stamp of approval from Google that showcases your knowledge of the latest AdWords tools and best practices as well as your ability to effectively manage AdWords campaigns. AdWords Certified individuals receive a personalized certificate from Google Partners that can be shown to future employers as a way to demonstrate your expertise.

By Mary

Head of Integrated Digital Marketing and International Outreach

Maris Pozo is an Integrated Digital Marketer and member of the American Marketing Association, with over 9 years of experience on the agency side-and has worked with clients such as HP, LATimes, and Monster.com--In bilingual markets in Spain and U.S.